William Hand Scrapbook

William Henry Hand was born on September 21st, 1900 in South Nyack, Rockland, New York. At age 18, he designed and built an electric furnace and a high voltage electric transformer for Liberty Street High School. In 1924, Hand graduated with a Bachelors of Science at Haverford College in Haverford, PA. He then was hired by Thomas Edison to be an assistant for the development of plastics. In three years, Hand managed to develop a plastic that reduced background noise in recordings. This plastic would later be sold to Henry Ford who complained of its lack of durability. When Hand created his own laboratory, he was responsible for the development of rustless iron, pure tungsten for lamp filaments, and the longest lasting storage battery in the US at the time. For his accomplishments in the iron, tungsten, lead, and plastic industries, Hand won countless awards, including the Wisdom Award of Honor and the Wisdom Encyclopedia Award in 1975. Thereafter, he became a Doctor of Science at the St. Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkill, New York. On November 30th, 1978, Hand passed away in Nyack, Rockland, New York at age 78.